My Little Man talks to me a lot lately about hearts (perhaps the theme is being carried on from discussions of Valentine's Day at daycare?). Last week he told me his heart was in his tummy because it is so big. This week, he told me his heart could talk. At the time, we were doing our morning commute and I laughed and told him he had a very clever heart and went about the rest of my day.
It later dawned on me though, how significant this moment was. My 3 year old son already knows what it has taken me 30 odd years to accept and take notice of. That our hearts speak to us. In whatever capacity he understands this and believes it to be true, what an amazing opportunity to reinforce an idea that as an adult we find so hard to grasp but that as a child, we would have accepted as a matter of course. Over the course of my life the concept of tuning in and listening to my heart was not something we were ever encouraged to do. Oprah may have just begun espousing the virtue of 'Living your best life' and tuning into your intuition but really, it wasn't the 'done' thing. Don't get me wrong, we were always encouraged at home to believe that we could do anything and at school there was an enormous focus on what women can achieve and being of service to the community. But really being taught and shown how to listen to your inner guidance and to understand that this could be one of the most important skills you could ever have, just wasn't on the radar.
But for this next generation of children there is the greatest possibility that this can and will be the 'done' thing. For all of us who have children in our lives we have the enormous opportunity to teach them, right from the word go, how to listen to their hearts when they speak and encourage them to follow and act on what they hear. Talk to them about it, teach them how to get quiet and listen in, even if its only for a few minutes. Teach them how to value their own truth and what is in their hearts. More than anything though (and this is the clincher), you can teach them the importance of listening to their own hearts by showing them that you listen to yours.......
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